News regarding the European Ecolabel – products, services and buildings
April 11, 2012 at 10:42 am | Posted in Certification, Events | Leave a commentTags: buildings, ecolabel for buildings, ecolabel for construction materials, ecolal certification, Energy Efficiency, Energy Efficiency in Buildings, green buildings, Ministry of Environment & Forests, Sustainable Construction, Sustainable Development
On April 5th, the Romania Green Building Council organized the third edition of the event that focused on the eco-labeling topic. The event took place at the headquarters of Swan Office & Technology Park and engaged the construction and hospitality industry and its service and product suppliers in a discussion about the opportunity and importance of a more environmentally responsible approach to designing, renovating, and operating their properties.
This year we have extended the discussion beyond the hotel industry, due to the increased interest not only from the building materials manufacturers in Romania, but also an increased interest at the European level regarding the extension and development of the criteria’s for obtaining the eco-label in other sectors of the construction industry. The main guest was Mrs. Daniela Toma – Councellor within the Directorate of Pollution Control and Impact Assessment, part of the Ministry of Environment and Forests. Mrs. Toma presented the advantages of obtaining the eco-label and the steps to be followed. The case study presented in this section was “Complex Piatra Soimului” from Sinaia, the first hotel from the Prahova Valley that obtained the eco-label.
Furthermore, it has been brought into discussion the types of products in the construction industry that can obtain the ecolabel certification and what is the connection between the ecolabel certification and buildings. The Romanian Green Buildings Council will collaborate with the Ministry of Environment and Forests for the establishment of a consultative working group which purpose will be to analyze and provide comments on the draft criteria that exist at the moment for the eco-labeling of buildings.
The first trans‐European communication platform about Sustainable Construction – Construction 21 was also part of the agenda, as the event was addressed to those concerned in taking advantage from energy-efficient design principles with low impact on the environment. Ms. Eng. Mihaela Nicolau presented the project’s scope and ways of how getting involved. We are confident that as a result of this event, a larger number of companies that promote energy efficient buildings will get involved in the Construction 21 project.
Madalina Radulescu, Complex Piatra Soimului, Sinaia
eng. Mihaela Nicolau, presenting the Construction21 project.
Romanian MEP, Adriana Ticau, talks about sources of funding for energy efficiency in buildings within World GBC Europe Network event in Brussles
October 13, 2011 at 8:49 pm | Posted in Legislative Outreach | Leave a commentTags: Brussels, buildings, energy_efficiency, european funding, funding, WGBC
Left to right: Steven Borncamp, Adriana Ticau, Anca Bieru, Bogdan Draganescu, Bogdan Atanasiu
On the 21st of September, in Brussels, 15 Green Building Councils from different European countries celebrated World Green Building Weektogether with officials from the European Parliament and the European Commission [see a full report on the meeting's outcome]. Among the key speakers, Romanian MEP Adriana Ticau addressed the audience highlighting the importance that recently adopted legislation such as EPBD 2 and the new measures included in the Roadmap for a Resource Efficient Europe have on strengthening the construction standards. Ms Ticau also talked about funding sources to ensure the high standards included in the legislation are met. As one of the well known supporters for higher level funding for energy efficiency in buildings she reminded the attendees about the opportunity for national governments to use up to 4% from the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) for energy efficient housing projects. Without spending that in 2007-2013 budgeting period it will be very difficult to negotiate higher shares from 2013 onwards.
According to the Regulation 397/2009 (that modifies the initial Regulation 1080/2006) the Member States can allocate up to 4% from the ERDF on projects for energy efficiency and use of renewable energy in existing housing. In the Regulation 1828/2006 (art 47.2) there are specified also the types of interventions that can be funded:
- renovation of the common parts of multi-family residential buildings
- delivery of modern social housing of good quality through renovation and change of use of existing buildings owned by public authorities or non-profit organizations
The 4% specific allocation for energy efficiency and RES in buildings should be added to the initial 2% allocation for housing that was available even before ; those combined could make possible an allocation for rehabilitation of low-income housing of 6% from the 9431 Mio EUR that were allocated to Romania from ERDF for the 2007-2013 period.
In Romania ERDF is one of the Structural Funds that is funding the priorities from the Regional Operational Program (ROP) and part of the Economic Competitiveness Sectoral Operational Program. The Axis 1 from ROP vaguely makes a reference to the possibility for local public authorities to obtain funding for social housing projects, but only if these are previously included in the Integrated Urban Development Plans. Social housing is not specified clearly in the indicative list of potential activities but it is included as a performance indicator for the overall assesment of the ROP. So, with a bit of imagination, public authorities could fund this type of projects. Unfortunately, from analyzing the list of projects that were financed so far under Axis 1 from ROP, not even one is related to energy efficiency in residential buildings or to delivering social housing.
In the Economic Competitiveness Program the situation is even more blurry because, even if there is a funding line for Improving the energy efficiency by the end-users (Measure 4.3), project that would fund energy efficiency in the housing sector are not specificaly included.
Ministry of Regional Development and Ministry of Economy could re-negotiate the priorities and budget allocation in both programs (ROP and Economic Competitiveness) with the European Commission and include a very clear allocation for projects aiming at improving energy efficiency in social housing. Also – because there is no European wide definition of what “social housing” mean, the European Commission left it upon each Member State to define it according to their national set criteria. There are signs that some discussion around the topic already started between the Ministry of Development and European Commission, but we need to move quick to be able to also implement some projects.
Anca Bieru
Get ready with your green building and sustainable company submissions!
April 28, 2011 at 2:49 pm | Posted in Events | Leave a commentTags: awards, buildings, Events, Green Building, Green Building Projects, Initiative, projects, sustainability, sustainable architecture, Sustainable Construction, Sustainable Development
Romania Green Building Council is partnering again with Europa Property to present the “Romania Green Building Council Awards“.
These include:
Eligible building projects must have been completed or implemented by December 31, 2010. The RoGBC Awards distinguish jury members include:
Persons and companies can nominate themselves or others and do not have to be members of the Romania Green Building Council, but must adhere to the submission criteria. The process to submit a nomination include:
Follow the instructions in the submission criteria to submit your form by May 10th, 6pm. Shortlisted candidates will be invited as guests of the RoGBC to attend EuropaProperty’s South Eastern European Awards where the Green Building award winners will be announced. The Green Awards take place during the 6th annual Europa Property SEE Real Estate Awards Gala & Forum at the Athenee Palace Hilton Hotel, May 19th for more information on attending and sponsorship opportunities please go towww.europaproperty.com |
New Energy Efficiency Plan – Wind of change or just a breeze?
March 23, 2011 at 6:40 pm | Posted in Legislative Outreach | 1 CommentTags: buildings, Energy Efficiency, Energy Efficiency and Service Directive, European Commission
The European Commission recently published its long awaited Energy Efficiency Plan. The document is revealing EU’s proposed strategy in the next years for achieving the 20% savings of primary energy consumption by 2020, target included in the Energy and Climate Change Package (also known as the 20/20/20 package 20 - CO2 emission cuts-/20 - increase in share of renewable- /20 – energy savings).
What measures from the plan have an impact on the building industry and should be of interest for the RoGBC members?
- public authorities will be required to refurbish at least 3% of their buildings each year at the level of the best 10% from the national building stock (mandatory in the Plan, but legal framework to enforce will be the recast Energy Efficiency and Service Directive – in discussion at the Commission this year)
- inclusion of energy efficiency criteria in public procurement of goods, services or works (optional, implementation at the Member State level will be highly dependent on the current green public procurement practices in each country)
- Member States to come with measures (especially directed to reducing heat consumption) for encouraging the building renovation, adoption of efficient appliances for private sector buildings (optional)
- energy performance contracting as a model for developing public building renovation projects or other type of public procurement (ex. street lighting) (optional for the moment – to be addressed in the upcoming recast of the Energy Efficiency and Savings Directive)
- encourage the development of ESCO’s or clear out the existing legal obstacles for their development (in Romania that would be a complicated and unclear legal system for developing public-private partnerships and lack of a model contract for ESCO’s) (optional for the moment – to be adressed in the Energy Efficiency and Savings Directive)
- setting stricter consumption standards for heating boilers, water heaters, computers, tumble driers, pumps, vacuum cleaners, further types of lighting (to be developed at the EU level – in dialogue with industry – under the EcoDesign Directive)
- plans for rolling out Smart grids, meters and appliances - in this context, buildings and appliances will have to be “smart grid ready” – capable of being integrated in a smart grid (European Commission to come with a specific legislative framework in this regard)
The big expectation from this document was to set binding targets for achieving the 20% energy saving set objective (or at least come with strong mandatory measures that would support the achievement of the objective) , since energy saving is the only target from the Energy and Climate Change package that is not binding in the moment. For the moment the European Commission is relying a lot on Member States’ willingness to implement the measures without mandatory targets. Even if the Commission evaluation of existing efforts (up until 2009) at the Member States level suggests that EU is on its way to achieve only half of the 20% objective, it decided to wait for 2013 to make another evaluation and if then the results are poor, binding targets will be back in discussion. However we know from now that only a strong set of measures will be able to deliver the predicted benefits of energy efficiency policy – transformation of daily life and household savings from the energy bill, job creation, CO2 cuts etc. What “strong” means in this context? Less proposals, suggestions and encouragements and more leadership and commitment.
The plan by itself has no legislative power, but some of the measures suggested could and will be captured in future legislative initiatives of the European Commission (either recasts of existing Directives or proposals of new legislative framework). Two major Directives that are to be recast this year and that will probably incorporate many of the suggested measures (the ones for buildings) are Energy Services and Combined Heat and Power Directive that will be transformed into Energy Efficiency and Savings Directive.
Updates to come…
Anca Bieru
“Greening our Hotels – Green Hotels in Romania too” – September 28th, 2010, Bucharest
October 12, 2010 at 10:49 am | Posted in Events | Leave a commentTags: buildings, conference, Energy Certification, Energy Efficiency, Events, Green Building, Green Building Council, green buildings, Legislation, Legislative Outreach, RoGBC, Sustainable Construction
On September 28th, Romania Green Building Council held, at the Athenee Palace Hilton, a one day course on “Greening our Hotels – Green Hotels in Romania too”, in order to engage the hospitality industry and its related products and services in a discussion regarding the opportunity and importance of a more environmentally responsible approach of architectural design, rehabilitation and dealing with properties.
The workshop provided practice information about integrating available technologies in the design of more energy efficient and with low environmental impact buildings. In addition, the course was structured so that the participants had the time to interact with the speakers, during the “question& answer” sessions.
First part. Competitive advantages for building/ refurbishing green hotels.
In his welcoming speech, Steven Borncamp, president of RoGBC, gave a short introduction to the importance of the “green approach” in designing and operating new buildings, increasing international and local regulations for building materials and energy consumption, as well as the need for more action for generalized sustainable principles for all types of buildings. Stressing that “green” stands for quality, present and future, Mr. Borncamp also mentioned that for a slight increase of the costs for a green building (with 2-4%), the cumulative savings are about 40% per year, while the investment amortization is being done in the first 2 or 3 years.
Next, Linda Griffin, the new general manager of Hilton Athenee Palace, presented some recent actions that aim at reducing electricity consumption, promoting ecological means of transportation (bicycles for customers) and creating a Green Team, which would be involve in implementing sustainable initiatives in the hotel network as well as initiating a “customer awareness” program on environmental behaviors during accommodation.
David Nicholl- general manager of Schneider Electric- had a comprehensive overview on the benefits of generalized automation systems in all types of buildings, including hotels. Through the Active Energy Management systems, significant, controllable and predictable reductions are being made, throughout the building, while ensuring optimum comfort for residents. The integrated Schneider Electric solutions can lead to constant electricity and heat consumption reductions up to 30% in the long run.
Second part. Financial incentives, legislation and certification
Ms. Maria Daniela Toma – manager in Ministry of Environment- tackled issues of the environmental labeling of hotels. Introduced after 2005, eco-labels represent green building certification, based on 20 criteria which include, among others, indicators of ecological materials use, presence and quality of the vegetation in the site area, energy and water consumption, waste storage and recycling, cleaning systems’ efficiency, information about preventive ecological behavior etc. Specific matters regarding general aspects and regulations of green label certification are available on www.eur-lex.europa.eu. The fee for obtaining this certification is presently 200-300 euro/year.
Furthermore, two case studies were presented. Linica Stan, manager Saturn Hotel, presented the case of Saturn Hotel, Mangalia, while for Crowne Plaza Hotel, Bucharest, the presentation was held by Melania Secuianu, Administrative Manager Crowne Plaza Hotel.
Mark Velody – BERD consultant – held a methodological overview of financial procedures, with favorable interest or grants for energy efficient building projects.
Third part. Innovative solutions.
Rafael Mărculescu – Schneider Electric – completed David Nicholl’s presentation through an application of energetic management integrated systems. He showed that the implementation of this kind of systems is very useful for all types of hotel equipments (heating/ HVAC/ water management, lighting etc.) and that the investment amortization for Schneider systems is up to 3 years, meanwhile noticing reductions of 35% for heat, 60% for electricity, as well as the number of employees.
David Clark – Cundall Engineering – presented a hotel case study, underlining the three aspects – energetic benchmarking, clarifying the CO2 footprint criteria (design, passive/ active system, energy efficiency and the recovery of energies) and users’ information/ education, in this case the tourists.
Specific solutions
In the last part the presentations were about a) particular solutions (products and systems) for a successfully implementation of significantly reduction of electricity consumption, lighting through efficient LED and mercury light bulbs (Cuneșteanu – Philips România), b) packaging waste management (Lorita Constantinescu – Eco-Rom Ambalaje) and c) sustainable solutions for green spaces design, through water management and special effects for the aesthetic part and for air quality improvement (Katja Perrey – Katja Perrey Landscapes).
Organizer:
Romania Green Building Council (www.RoGBC.org) is a non-profit and non-political association which encourages the development of market, educational and legal conditions necessary in the transformation of the building industry, in order to create and refurbish intelligent buildings, both sustainable and profitable. RoGBC is an “Established Council” within the World Green Building Council (www.WorldGBC.org) .
Cristina Şiu
Romania Green Building Council
Manager Marketing & Events
021-222 5135 / 021-260 0051 / 021 – 222 0011
RoGBC and biblionet make the next step in EcoBiblioteca project
October 6, 2010 at 2:59 pm | Posted in Green Building Projects | Leave a commentTags: buildings, Energy Efficiency, green buildings, renewable energy, sustainability, Sustainable Development
On 7 september, RoGBC organized at our office an integrated design meeting which gathered all the parties involved in the project: RoGBC, biblionet, Corporate Office Solution, WSP, Dexion, B Lighting, InterfaceFloor, Dicositiganas and local authorities from Cacica. The summary of the project is to renovate the Cacica library in a “green way” by significantly improving the design, energy performance, lighting quality, indoor air quality and comfort of the building. The project will encourage use of the library as a community space increasing visits and participation by the citizenry. The project will build awareness of environmentally responsible and energy efficient building and renovation techniques and stimulate the creation of green jobs both locally and nationally.
The meeting was definitely a success. We split the discussion in 4 main points, and created 4 different tables;
1. Which are the obstacles encountered and how we overcome them?
2. How do we promote the “EcoLibrary” concept nationally?
3. The objectives of the project.
4. New ideas to overcome the “old” library concept.
All participants had the opportunity to rotate around the 4 tables. All parties expressed their opinion regarding each subject so the discussion was complete from all points of view and valuable information was gathered.
The participants were pleased with the way the meeting went.
The integrated design session is an important aspect for green constructions, in our case this sustainable renovation.
We want to thank all the participants and for those who want to join this project the “doors” are open.
Catalin Gauloiu
Schneider Electric helped cutting the CO2 emissions of the Copenhagen summit venue
December 17, 2009 at 8:12 pm | Posted in Events, Member Projects, News from Members | Leave a commentTags: Bella Center, buildings, climate change, Co2 reduction, conference, Copenhagen, Copenhagen Summit, Energy Efficiency, Energy Efficiency in Buildings, Schneider Electric, Sustainable Development
If a picture is worth 1.000 words, how many words do you think an energy efficient building makes up for? And it’s not just any building, but the location of the Copenhagen summit, Bella Center. RoGBC member company Schneider Electric helped cutting the CO2 emissions for the site of the UN Climate Change Conference.
To be more exact, the company modernized some technical installations, including the ventilation and cooling systems, 107 circulation pumps and about 2,000 light fittings. 5,268 energy-efficient light tubes were installed and the heating and lightning control system were automated, so that they adjust to fluctuations both indoor and outdoor and take up only the amount of energy needed.
Bella Center is monitored by a building management system that generates hourly reports about the electricity consumption. The Bella Center upgrade prevents about 1,150 tons of CO2 from being emitted every year. Maybe all these numbers don’t seem all that impressive, but think of it this way: the emissions that were avoided by Schneider Electric through the energy efficient system in Bella Center would be equal to about 7 million kilometers on the road in your car. Not bad, is it?
That is Schneider Electric’s way of encouraging the debate in Copenhagen and expressing hope that it will leave behind some revelations on how to save the planet, or at least get on the right track by reducing the CO2 emissions and protecting the environment more than before.
Read more about the retrofitting of the Bella Center on activeBE.com, the online Schneider Electric Building Energy online community.
RoGBC signs position paper “Romania and Climate Change Policies – Economic Stimulus from a Green Economy”
September 19, 2009 at 4:46 pm | Posted in Events, Legislative Outreach | Leave a commentTags: buildings, climate change, conference, Energy Audit, Energy Certification, Energy Efficiency, Energy Efficiency in Buildings, GBC, Green Building, Green Building Council, green buildings, LEED, Legislation, Legislative Outreach, renewable energy, strategy, sustainability, sustainable architecture, Sustainable Development, WWF
The Romania Green Building Council (RoGBC) along with WWF Danube-Carpathian Romania, United Nations Development Program (UNDP) and the Association of Energy Auditors for Buildings (AAEC) signed a shared position paper, regarding the measures that should be taken in order to encourage energy efficiency. The document, entitled “Romania and Climate Change Policies – Economic Stimulus from a Green Economy”, draws the attention on the economic opportunities associated with the implementation of environment policies, especially in the construction field. Some of the opportunities highlighted are the reducing energy costs, ensuring energy safety, raising comfort and creating new jobs.
In addition, the position paper underlines the necessity of immediate action in order to move towards a greener economy and explains that the practical measures to be applied do not represent budgetary costs, but investments towards a sustainable development. .
The position paper is available for reading here.
RoGBC Green Cafe – Urbanization and Adaptive Reuse
August 21, 2009 at 3:00 pm | Posted in Events | Leave a commentTags: buildings, Energy Efficiency, green cafe, strategy, Sustainable Development
The August edition of the RoGBC Green Cafe ended with unanimous laughter as Jaime Lerner, a Brazilian mayor sang the “Sustainability song” during his presentation on reinventing the urban system in his native city, Curitiba. “The city is not the problem, the city is the solution”, said Lerner in his TED Conference presentation that the Green Cafe participants watched and discussed. A provocative thought that would motivate the discussions around “urbanization and adaptive reuse”, which was the main topic of this month’s meeting.
“Every city in the world can be improved in less than three years” argued Jaime Lerner. “This is not a matter of scale, it is not a question of financial resources” he added, before expressing his strong belief that “every problem in a city has to have its own equation of co-responsibility.” To explain this position, Lerner listed some of the most significant factors in achieving success, by presenting his work for restructuring the city of Curitiba.
While selecting important experience tools from his presentation, the participants described some of the obstacles that Romania crosses whenever it faces a changing agent willing to take action in the urban space. The lack of education, the very high level of beaurocracy and the lack of measures that would be specifically adequate to the Romanian environment were only some of the arguments the participants presented.
The discussion had a solid optimistic foundation that was set by another short movie, called “Adaptive Reuse in the Netherlands”. The educational documentary presenting the successful transformation of the Borneo docks and Sporenburg of Amsterdam into residential neighborhoods set a striking positive example of intelligent adaptation of the city to the needs of its inhabitants. Discussing the possibilities for Romania, the participants agreed that there is a constant need to adapt innovation and creativity to the local environment specificity.
Sustainable Construction in Transylvania!
August 17, 2009 at 7:29 pm | Posted in Events, General | Leave a commentTags: buildings, GBC, Green Building, Green Building Council, green buildings, meeting, sustainability, sustainable_development, Training
Building green means building for the future, but at the same time building green has a lot to do with the past. Tradition and sustainability are, in a way, similar : both of them have to defeat time. Therefore analyzing tradition can reveal very interesting facts about the way people in the old times perceived sustainability and even applied it, although the term did not yet exist. The RoGBC used this idea and transformed it into an exciting event in Transylvania, the mountainous heart of Romania.
In the medieval environment of the “Land of the Seven Citadels” – as Transylvania is historically known – the participants took notice of the roots of sustainability in Romanian architecture and also got acquainted with the traditional Romanian food, music and folk dances.
Architect Horatiu Racasan held a presentation on sustainable construction practices and also showed some of his projects.
Eva Schmincke, a director of the German Sustainable Building Council (DGNB) and product specification expert, discussed the future of sustainable construction materials product declarations (EPD) and their role in sustainable construction in Europe.
Gabriel Rosca, President of the Sibiu chapter of the Romanian Order of Architects discussed the results of a summer school where attendees developed and presented urban planning and green solutions for the city’s challenges.
Nicholas Dimancescu showed a short film and explained the history and development of the Inn at Balaban – our venue for the weekend in Transylvania.
Sabin Maghiar of Monsena demonstrated some of the work their company is doing for historical renovations in Romania.
Architect Silvia Demeter of Context Architecture and Romania’s representative to the European Council of Architects provided an excellent tour of Brasov city despite some interruptions from uncooperative weather. The sun got friendlier as we visited the Rasnov fortress.
As they first arrived in Bucharest, the participants took a walking tour through the capital city and hear about the stories behind its most important buildings. Luiza Hanc and Octavian Partenie, two of the associate members of the RoGBC, as well as RoGBC Communication Specialist, Alina Kartman, were in charge with providing the information for the tour.
Although time was short, plenty of other activities were fit into the schedule: an excellent outdoor dinner at the Hilton’s La Strada, and two unforgettable train rides 
Check the RoGBC Flikr account for more photos from the event.
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